“You’re jealous.”

“Nay. He has nothing I want.”

“Then you’re ruder than I remember.”

“Do you remember? That stuns me.”

“What stuns me is your gall, but what else should I expect from a smuggler?” I hissed as our steps brought us close. Asa kept dancing, showing absolutely no reaction. “You’re not even going to deny it?”

“Why bother?” Blue eyes cut to me. “You won’t listen.”

“When will you be leaving New York, Mr. Latimer?”

“Is that your way of saying you cannot wait to be rid of me?”

“It’s my way of saying I don’t know why you’re here.”

“It’s simple. I came in search of Francisca Tasker—but I have yet to find her.”

Shock pierced me, like a hook to the chest. I froze. Tears surged to my eyes.

Asa went ahead a few steps. He stopped and turned to me, the impassive look on his face finally falling away. “No. I didn’t mean—”

“Ex-excuse me,” I stammered. Then I fled.

The tears were coming. I wouldn’t be able to stop them.

I hurried to the second floor, desperate to find a private place where I could let them go. The first room I tried was a game parlor, where men were seated at card tables. I darted back out; the last person I wanted to see was Duncan. The next room was filled with older couples listening to a young woman at a pianoforte. The next was a library filled with Hessian officers.

Frustrated, tears blurring my eyes, I hurried to the third-floor stairs—and came to an abrupt stop.

“Please, sir,” I said to the Hessian soldier guarding them. “Please let me pass.”

He glowered at me for a long moment, but then stepped aside as my tears finally fell. I gathered my petticoats and dashed up the stairs. On the landing, closed doors ran down a long hallway. I tried the first and glimpsed a man and woman tangled in the darkness.

I’d had enough. I flew to the last room and burst into it. Shutting the door, I fell back against it. Then I breathed and breathed and let the tears run.

Francisca Tasker.

It was foreign to my ears. The name of a perfect stranger.

But no stranger’s name would make me ache this much, like I’d been hollowed out.

Asa had said he couldn’t find her—and no wonder. I ran my hands over my gown. My beribboned and feather-adorned hair. I could barely remember her myself.

As my eyes adjusted to the moonlit room, I saw a confusion of furniture and boxes. A large desk sat at the center. A dark wardrobe loomed behind it. Chairs were stacked in the corner. Along the walls were random items like boxes, an octant, miter caps. A lap desk. It was orderly disorder—the stacks tidy, like they’d been placed temporarily, in the process of a reorganization.

I brushed at my wet cheeks and crept over to the desk, my instincts stirring.